Me but this Delay I doubt not but I shall give some satisfaction to you all here and to My People after that and therefore I do require you as you will answer it at the dreadful Day of Judgment that you will consider it once again Bradshaw Sir I have received direction from the Court. KING Well Sir Bradshaw If this must be re-inforced or any thing of this nature your Answer must be the same and they will proceed to Sentence if you have nothing more to say KING I have nothing more to say but I shall desire that this may be entred what I have said Bradshaw The Court then Sir hath something to say unto you which although I know it will be very unacceptable yet notwithstanding they are willing and are resolved to discharge their Duty Then Bradshaw went on in a long Harangue endeavouring to justifie their proceedings misapplying Law and History and raking up and wresting whatsoever he thought fit for his purpose alleging the Examples of former Treasons and Rebellions both at home and abroad as authentick proofs and concluding that the King was a Tyrant Traitor Murtherer and publick Enemy to the Commonwealth of England His Majesty having with His wonted Patience heard all these Reproaches answered I would desire only one word before you give Sentence and that is That you would hear Me concerning those great Imputations that you have laid to My charge Bradshaw Sir you must give me now leave to go on for I am not far from your Sentence and your time is now past KING But I shall desire you will hear Me a few words to you for truly whatever Sentence you will put upon Me in respect of those heavy Imputations that I see by your speech you have put upon Me. Sir it is very true that Bradshaw Sir I must put you in mind truly Sir I would not willingly at this time especially interrupt you in any thing you have to say that is proper for us to admit of but Sir you have not owned us as a Court and you look upon as a sort of people met together and we know what Language we receive from your Party KING I know nothing of that Bradshaw You disavow us as a Court and therefore for you to address your self to us not to acknowledge us as a Court to judge of what you say it is not to be permitted And the truth is all along from the first time you were pleased to disavow and disown us the Court needed not to have heard you one word for unless they be acknowledged a Court and engaged it is not proper for you to speak Sir we have given you too much Liberty already and admitted of too much Delay and we may not admit of any further Were it proper for us to do we should hear you freely and we should not have declined to have heard you at large what you could have said or proved on your behalf whether for totally excusing or for in part excusing those great and hainous Charges that in whole or in part are laid upon you But Sir I shall trouble you no longer your Sins are of so large a dimension that if you do but seriously think of them they will drive you to a sad consideration and they may improve in you a sad and serious repentance And that the Court doth heartily wish that you may be so penitent for what you have done amiss that God may have mercy at least-wise upon your better part Truly Sir for the other it is our parts and duties to do that that the Law prescribes We are not here Jus dare but Jus dicere we cannot be unmindful of what the Scripture tells us For to acquit the guilty is of equal abomination as to condemn the innocent we may not acquit the guilty What sentence the Law affirms to a Traitor Tyrant a Murtherer and a publick enemy to the Countrey that Sentence you are now to hear read unto you and that is the Sentence of the Court. Make an O yes and command Silence while the Sentence is read Which done their Clerk Broughton read the Sentence drawn up in Parchment WHereas the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an High Court of Justice for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at the first time a Charge of High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England Here the Charge was repeated Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid he the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do Expressing the several passages of His refusing in the former Proceedings For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge That he the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traitor Murtherer and a publick Enemy shall be put to death by the severing of his Head from his Body Which being read Bradshaw added This Sentence now read and published it is the Act Sentence Judgment and Resolution of the whole Court To which they all expressed their Assent by standing up as was before agreed and ordered His Majesty then said Will you hear Me a word Sir Bradshaw Sir you are not to be heard after the Sentence KING No Sir Bradshaw No Sir by your favour Sir Guard withdraw your Prisoner KING I may speak after Sentence by your favour Sir I may speak after Sentence ever By your favour hold The Sentence Sir I say Sir I do I am not suffered to speak expect what Justice other People will have The Persons that sate when Judgment was given upon the Life of their KING were these Serjeant John Bradshaw Lieutenant General Cromwell Commissary General Ireton John Lisle Esquire William Say Esquire Sir Hardresse Waller Colonel Valentine Walton Colonel Thomas Harrison Colonel Edward Whaley Colonel Thomas Pride Colonel Isaac Ewer Thomas Lord Gray of Groby Sir John Danvers Knight Sir Thomas Maleverer Baronet Sir John Bourchier Knight William Heveningham Esquire Isaac Ponnington Alderman Colonel Henry Marten Colonel William Poresoy Colonel John Berksted John Blakeston Esquire Gilbert Millington Sir William Constable Baronet Colonel Edmund Ludlow Colonel John Hutchinson Sir Michael Livesey Baronet Colonel Robert Tichburne Colonel Owen Rowe Colonel Robert Lilburne Colonel Adrian Scroope Colonel Richard Deane Colonel John Okey Colonel John Hewson Colonel William Goffe Cornelius Holland Esquire John Carew Esquire Colonel John Jones Miles Corbet Esquire Francis Allen Esquire Peregrine Pelham Esquire Colonel John More Colonel John Alured Colonel Henry Smith Humphrey Edwards Esquire Gregory Clement Esquire Thomas Wogan Esquire Sir Gregory Norton Baronet Colonel Edmund Harvey Colonel John Venne Thomas Scot. Esquire Thomas Andrewes Alderman William Cawley Esquire Antony Stapely Esquire Colonel John Downes Colonel Thomas Horton Colonel Thomas Hammond Nicholas Love Esquire Vincent Potter Augustine Garland Esquire John Dixwell Esquire Colonel George Fleetwood Simon Mayne Esquire Colonel James Temple Peter Temple Daniel Blagrave Esquire
Propositions could be more unreasonable than those Fourteen except the former Nineteen To pass by the Preamble in which most unnecessarily they lay most heavy and most unjust Charges upon His Majesty and yet draw an Argument of His Aversion to Peace from those known Truths which either His defence or the matter in question Crimes being impossible to be spoken of but as Crimes did after extort from Him would not any man have expected that had observed with what violence this War was begun and prosecuted against His Majesty to have found in the Propositions for Peace the Demand of at least some and those very important Rights which were withheld from them before the War and so had given some colour for it But of these there appears not so much as one and yet till all these are granted and performed they do as much as say in Terms plain enough in their Conclusion that they have not any hope nor will use any endeavours that His Majesty and His People may enjoy the Blessings of Peace and Justice which was certainly by terrour of Arms to demand new Laws and as great a Proof that they did so as they seem to confess it unparliamentary if they had done it Is not the taking away of the Bishops Deans and Chapters and indeed the whole establisht Ecclesiastical frame of Order and Government a new Law yet unless His Majesty will yield to take it away though there were but five Lords present when the Bill past and though no other form be yet offered or shewed to Him but the Presbyterians and Independents are left to fight it out among themselves what shall succeed in the place His Majesty is told He must not hope for Peace And the division likely to ensue between different Parties what shall after be introduced shews sufficiently what hope there should be of Peace if He should pass it Are not the Bill against Scandalous Ministers in which most of their own Faction are appointed Commissioners that they may make way for and introduce a new Clergy of their own the Bill against Pluralities which makes no difference of conditions or merits of Persons or of value of Livings and looks not only forwards but extends to the immediate dispossessing of present Incumbents of what is vested in them for their Lives by the Law of the Land the Bill for the Consultation of Divines Persons of their own choice and most of them of their Faction and of no esteem but with themselves hardly at all bounded as to the matter and absolutely unlimited as to the time of their consultation all news Laws Is not the settling of the Militia both by Sea and Land and the Forts and Ports in such a manner as shall be agreed on by both Houses in which His Majesty is expected with a blind implicite Faith to trust them with the whole Power of the Kingdom and with His only means of defending Himself and protecting His Subjects though into what hands or for what time or in what manner they will order or dispose of it is so far from appearing to Him that it doth not yet appear that both Houses know themselves and how they have already used that Power is known to all the World both a new and a strange Demand Are the Earl of Bristoll's Removal and Exclusion from all possibility of Employment a Person uncondemned unimpeacht and unsummoned no crime or error either proved or but named against him or the choice of the Judges and Master of the Rolls the change of Commissioners of the Peace and Oyer and Terminer or the restoring of Members of the Houses even to such menial places of Service as required a personal attendance and who had yet refused to attend upon command or the assenting to whatsoever Acts He shall be advised for paying of Debts contracted upon the publick Faith that is by the Authority of both Houses by which His Majesty must allow Himself to be no no part of the publick and must directly allow and as it were ratifie that Rebellion which this Money was raised to foment either due to them by Law or reasonable in themselves Doth the directing His Majesty with whom and how far to make Alliances belong to them or was that at all necessary His inclination to the strictest bands with Princes and States of the Protestant Religion being by the Match of His Daughter sufficiently expressed And yet till all this be done and unless He will pardon all that have born Arms against Him and leave those that have assisted Him to their Mercy who have none they will not promise any hopeful endeavours for Peace and Justice But is there any thing else that is due by Law which was before denied and is here demanded that can in any degree justifie or extenuate that ever Peace was broken and Justice destroyed Not so much as one tittle Did His Majesty give any Commission till they had mustered many men Or did He so much as take any Guard to Him till both they had a much greater many months and had of their own Authority ordered a serjeant-major-Serjeant-Major-General of their City Forces and till His Magazine and Town were by Arms kept against Him though He were provoked to it before by all the other Indignities and Injuries which Insolence and Injustice could devise Was not Sir John Hotham for all his known Treason refused to be left by them to Justice and the trial of the Law before ever any that was but call'd a Delinquent was protected by His Majesty And was not His Majesty then denied that which themselves confess to be the due and right of the meanest Subject and do so far expect as to look upon it rather as a scorn than a satisfaction now His Majesty offers it to them Was any one Papist armed by His Majesty before many of that Religion and multitudes of persons against whose Recusancy the Law is as severe as against theirs were armed against Him or than either until their mere being of that Religion made them without colour of Law be plunder'd and imprison'd in all parts and some of them fly into His Army for protection Did not His Majesty before of himself often offer to vindicate the Privileges of Parliament from any imaginable breach of them in the business of the Lord Kimbolton and Five Members and did He not offer to wave their Charge willingly submitting it to the publick Peace So that the obtaining that demand or the disbanding of the Army or the disarming of Papists or the trial of Delinquents though they make some such shew as they are set in this place yet not any of them were any grounds of this their War And all that is due in these Demands having been offered before the War or occasioned or necessitated by it and being still to be had without it the whole People cannot but see that nothing but Fears and Jealousies have been the fumes with which they have so intoxicated His seduced Subjects
they please to call it of the tenth of June will surely believe the Peace of this Kingdom to be extreamly shaken and at least the King himself to be consulted with and privy to these Propositions But We hope that when Our good Subjects shall find that this goodly pretence of the Defence of the King is but a specious bait to seduce weak and inconsiderate men into the highest Acts of Disobedience and Disloyalty against Us and of Violence and Destruction upon the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom they will no longer be captivated by an implicite Reverence to the name of both Houses of Parliament but will carefully examine and consider what number of persons are present and what persons are prevalent in those Consultations and how the Debates are probably managed from whence such horrid and monstrous Conclusions do result and will at least weigh the Reputation Wisdom and Affection of those who are notoriously known out of the very horrour of their Proceedings to have withdrawn themselves or by their skill and violence to be driven from them and their Counsels Whilst their Fears and Jealousies did arise or were infused into the people from Discourses of the Rebels in Ireland of Skippers at Roterdam of Forces from Denmark France or Spain how improbable and ridiculous soever that bundle of Informations appeared to all wise and knowing men it is no wonder if the easiness to deceive and the willingness to be deceived did prevail over many of Our weak Subjects to believe that the Dangers which they did not see might proceed from Causes which they did not understand But for them to declare to all the world That We intend to make War against Our Parliament whilest We sit still complaining to God Almighty of the Injury offered to Us and to the very Being of Parliaments and that We have already begun actually to levy Forces both of Horse and Foot whilest We have only in a Legal way provided a smaller Guard for the security of Our own Person so near a Rebellion at Hull than they have had without lawful Authority above these eight Months upon imaginary and impossible Dangers to impose upon Our peoples Sense as well as Understanding by telling them We are doing that which they see We are not doing and intending that they all know as much as Intentions can be known We are not intending is a boldness agreeable to no power but the Omnipotence of those Votes whose absolute Supremacy hath almost brought Confusion upon King and People and against which no Knowledge in matter of Fact or Consent and Authority in matter of Law they will endure shall be opposed We have upon all occasions with all possible Expressions professed Our fast and unshaken Resolutions for Peace And We do again in the presence of Almighty God Our Maker and Redeemer assure the World that We have no more thought of making a War against Our Parliament than against Our own Children that We will maintain and observe the Acts assented to by Us this Parliament without Violation of which that for the frequent assembling of Parliaments is one and that We have not or shall not have any thought of using any force unless We shall be driven to it for the security of Our Person and for the defence of the Religion Laws and Liberty of the Kingdom and the just Rights and Privileges of Parliament And therefore We hope the Malignant Party who have so much despised Our Person and usurped Our Office shall not by their specious fraudulent insinuations prevail with Our good Subjects to give credit to their wicked Assertions and so to contribute their Power and Assistance for the ruine and destruction of Us and themselves For Our Guard about Our Person which not so much their Example as their Provocation inforced Us to take 't is known it consists of the prime Gentry in Fortune and Reputation of this County and of one Regiment of Our Trained Bands who have been so far from offering any Affronts Injuries or Disturbance to any of Our good Subjects that their principal end is to prevent such and so may be Security can be no Grievance to our People That some ill affected persons or any persons have been employed in other parts to raise Troops under colour of Our Service or have made large or any offers of Reward and Preferment to such as will come in is for ought We know and as We believe an Untruth devised by the Contrivers of this false Rumour We disavow it and are confident there will be no need of such Art or Industry to induce Our loving Subjects when they shall see Us oppressed and their Liberties and Laws confounded and till then We shall not call on them to come in to Us and to assist Us. For the Delinquents whom We are said with a high and forcible hand to protect let them be named and their Delinquency and if We give not satisfaction to Justice when We shall have received satisfaction concerning Sir John Hotham by his legal Trial then let Us be blamed But if the Design be as it is well known to be after We have been driven by force from Our City of London and kept by force from Our Town of Hull to protect all those who are Delinquents against Us and to make all those Delinquents who attend on Us or execute Our lawful Commands We have great reason to be satisfied in the Truth and Justice of such Accusation lest to be Our Servant and to be a Delinquent grow to be terms so convertible that in a short time We be left as naked in Attendance as they would have Us in Power and so compel Us to be waited on only by such whom they shall appoint and allow and in whose presence We should be more miserably alone than in Desolation it self And if the seditious Contrivers and Fomenters of this Scandal upon Us shall have as they have had the power to mis-lead the major part present of either or both Houses to make such Orders and send such Messages and Messengers as they have lately done for the apprehension of the great Earls and Barons of England as if they were Rogues or Felons and whereby Persons of Honour and Quality are made Delinquents merely for attending upon Us and upon Our Summons whilst other men are forbid to come near Us though obliged by the Duty of their Places and Oaths upon Our lawful Commands 't is no wonder if such Messengers are not very well intreated and such Orders not obeyed Neither can there be a surer and a cunninger way found out to render the Authority of both Houses scorned and vilified than to assume to themselves merely upon the Authority of the Name of Parliament a power monstrous to all Understandings and to do Actions and to make Orders evidently and demonstrably contrary to all known Law and Reason as to take up Arms against Us under colour of defending Us to cause Money to be brought in to
do most concern Our Rights Our Quarrel is not against the Parliament but against particular Men who first made the Wounds and will not now suffer them to be healed but make them deeper and wider by contriving fostering and fomenting Mistakes and Jealousies betwixt Body and Head Us and Our two Houses of Parliament whom We name are ready to prove them guilty of High Treason We desire that the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Mr. Pym Mr. Hampden Sir Arthur Hesilrigge Mr. Stroud Mr. Martin Sir Henry Ludlow Alderman Pennington and Captain Venn may be delivered into the hands of Justice to be tried by their Peers according to the known Law of the Land if we do not prove them guilty of High Treason they will be acquitted and their Innocence will justly triumph over Us. Against the Earl of Warwick the Earl of Essex Earl of Stamford Lord Brook Sir John Hotham Serjeant Major General Skippon and those who shall henceforth exercise the Militia by virtue of the Ordinance We shall cause Indictments to be drawn of High Treason upon the Statute of the 25. year of King Edward the Third Let them submit to the Trial appointed by Law and plead their Ordinances if they shall be acquitted We have done And that all Our loving Subjects may know that in truth nothing but the preservation of the true Protestant Religion invaded by Brownisme Anabaptisme and Libertinisme the Safety of Our Person threatned and conspired against by Rebellion and Treason the Law of the Land and Liberty of the Subject oppressed and almost destroyed by an Usurped Unlimited Arbitrary Power and the Freedom Priviledge and Dignity of Parliament awed and insulted upon by Force and Tumults could make us put off Our long-loved Robe of Peace and take up defensive Arms We once more offer a free and a gracious Pardon to all Our loving Subjects who shall desire the same except the persons before named and shall be as glad with Safety and Honour to lay down these Arms as of the greatest Blessing We are capable of in this World But if to justify these Actions and these Persons our Subjects shall think fit to engage themselves in a War against Us We must not look upon it as an Act of Our Parliament but as a Rebellion against Us and the Law in the behalf of these Men and shall proceed for the suppressing it with the same Conscience and Courage as We would meet an Army of Rebels who endeavour to destroy both King and People And We will never doubt to find honest Men enough of Our minds MDCXLI April ¶ The true Copy of the Petition prepared by the Officers of the late Army and subscribed by His Majesty with C. R. To the KING' 's most Excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Knights Citizens and Burgesses now assembled in the High Court of Parliament The Humble Petition of the Officers and Souldiers of the Army Humbly sheweth THat although our Wants have been very pressing and the Burthen we are become unto these parts by reason of those Wants very grievous unto us yet so have we demeaned our selves that Your Majesty's great and weighty Affairs in this present Parliament have hitherto received no interruption by any Complaint either from us or against us A temper not usual in Armies especially in one destitute not only of Pay but also of Martial Discipline and many of its principal Officers That we cannot but attribute it to a particular blessing of Almighty God on our most hearty affection and zeal to the Common good in the happy success of this Parliament to which as we should have been ready hourly to contribute our dearest blood so now that it hath pleased God to manifest his blessing so manifestly therein we cannot but acknowledge it with thankfulness We cannot but acknowledge his great Mercy in that he hath inclined Your Majesties Royal heart so to co-operate with the wisdom of the Parliament as to effect so great and happy a Reformation upon the former Distempers of this Church and Commonwealth As first in Your Majesties gracious condescending to the many important Demands of our neighbours of the Scotish Nation secondly in granting so free a course of Justice against all Delinquents of what quality soever thirdly in the removal of all those Grievances wherewith the Subjects did conceive either their Liberty of Persons Propriety of Estate or Freedom of Conscience prejudiced and lastly in the greatest pledge of security that ever the Subjects of England received from their Soveraign the Bill of Triennial Parliaments These things so graciously accorded unto by Your Majesty without bargain or compensation as they are more than expectation or hope could extend unto so now certainly they are such as all Loyal hearts ought to requiesce in with thankfulness which we do with all humility and do at this time with as much earnestness as any pray and wish that the Kingdom may be settled in peace and quietness and that all Men may at their own homes enjoy the blessed fruits of Your Wisdom and Justice But may it please Your Excellent Majesty and this High Court of Parliament to give us leave with grief and anguish of heart to represent unto You that We hear that there are certain persons stirring and practical who in stead of rendring Glory to God Thanks to his Majesty and acknowledgment to the Parliament remain yet as unsatisfied and mutinous as ever who whilest all the rest of the Kingdom are arrived even beyond their wishes are daily forging new and unseasonable demands who whilest all Men of Reason Loyalty and Moderation are thinking how they may provide for your Majesties Honour and Plenty in return of so many Graces to the Subject they are still attempting new Diminutions of Your Majesty's just Regalities which must ever be no less dear to all honest Men than our own Freedoms in fine Men of such turbulent Spirits as are ready to sacrifice the Honour and Welfare of the whole Kingdom to their private fancies whom nothing else than a subversion of the whole frame of Government will satisfie Far be it from our thoughts to believe that the Violence and Vnreasonableness of such kind of persons can have any influence upon the Prudence and Justice of the Parliament But that which begets the trouble and disquiet of Our Loyal hearts at this present is That we hear those ill-affected persons are backed in their Violence by the Multitude and the power of raising Tumults that thousands flock at their call and beset the Parliament and White-Hall it self not only to the prejudice of that freedom which is necessary to great Councils and Judicatories but possibly to some personal danger of Your Sacred Majesty and Peers The vast consequence of these Persons Malignity and of the Licentiousness of those Multitudes that follow them considered in most deep care and zealous affection for the safety of Your Sacred Majesty and the Parliament Our Humble Petition is that in Your
the Lieutenant and Judges there should be nominated by the two Houses of Parliament as is expressed in the twentieth Proposition who will recommend none to be imployed by his Majesty in places of so great trust but such whose known Ability and Integrity shall make them worthy of them which must needs be best known to a Parliament nor are they to have any greater Power conferred upon them by the granting this Proposition then they have had who did formerly execute those places And we know no reason why your Lordships should make difficulty of his Majesties consenting to such Acts as shall be presented unto him for raising Moneys and other necessaries from the Subject which is without any charge to himself for no other end but the settling of the true Protestant Religion in that Kingdom and reducing it to his Majesties Obedience for which we hold nothing too dear that can be imployed by us And we cannot but wonder that your Lordships should make the prosecution of the War of Ireland which is but to execute Justice upon those bloody Rebels who have broken all Laws of God and Man their Faith their Allegiance all bonds of Charity all rules of Humanity and humane Society who have Butchered so many thousands of Innocent Christians Men Women and Children whose Blood cries up to Heaven for Vengeance so many of his Majesties Subjects whose Lives he is bound to require at their hands that spilt them and to do Justice upon them to put away innocent Blood from himself his Posterity the whole Land these execrable Antichristian Rebels who have made a covenant with Hell to destroy the Gospel of Christ and have taken up Arms to destroy the Protestant Religion to set up Popery to rend away one of his Majesties Kingdoms and deliver it up into the hands of Strangers for which they have negotiations with Spain and other States a War which must prevent so much mischief do so much good offer up such an acceptable Sacrifice to the Great and Just God of Heaven who groans under so much Wickedness to lie so long unpunished a War which must reduce that Kingdom unto his Majesties Obedience the most glorious work that this Kingdom can undertake that the prosecution of such a War your Lordships should make to depend upon any other condition that the Distractions of these Kingdoms should be laid as an impediment unto it and that there should be any thought any thing which should give those Rebels hope of impunity if our Miseries continue whereas according to Christian reason and the ordinary course of God's Providence nothing can be more probable to continue our Miseries then the least connivence in this kind What can be said or imagined should be any inducement to it We hope not to make use of their help and assistance to strengthen any party here to bring over such Actors of barbarous Cruelties to exercise the same in these Kingdoms We desire your Lordships to consider these things and that nothing may remain with you which may hinder his Majesty from giving his Consent to all good means for the reducing of Ireland according to what is desired by us in our Propositions The King's Commissioners Reply to the two last Papers The King's Commissioners Paper 20. February WE are very sorry that our Answers formerly given to your Lordships in the business of the Cessation which was so necessary to be made and being made to be kept have not given your Lordships satisfaction and that your Lordships have not rather thought fit to make the reasonableness of your Propositions concerning Ireland appear to us or to make such as might be reasonable in the stead then by charging his Majesty with many particulars which highly reflect upon his Honour to compel us to mention many things in Answer to your Lordships Allegations which otherwise in a time of Treaty when we would rather endeavour to prevent future Inconveniences then to insist on past mistakes we desired to have omitted And we can no ways admit that when the Cessation was made in Ireland his Majesties Protestant Subjects there could have subsisted without that Cessation nor that the War can be maintained and prosecuted to the subduing the Rebels there so long as the War continues in this Kingdom which are the chief grounds laid for the Assertions in your Lordships first Paper delivered this day concerning the business of Ireland Neither can we conceive that your Lordships have alleged any thing that could in the least degree satisfie us that his Majesty had no Power to make that Cessation or had no Reason so to do considering as we have formerly said and do again insist upon it that by that Cessation which was not made till long after this Kingdom was embroiled in a miserable War the poor Protestants there who for want of Supplies from hence were ready to famish and be destroyed were preserved and that Kingdom kept from utter Ruin so far was it from being a design for their Destruction or for the advantage of the Popish bloody Rebels as is insinuated for it appears by the Letters of the Lords Justices of Ireland Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase and of the Council there of the fourth of April 1643. before that Cessation made directed to the Speaker of the House of Commons a Copy whereof we delivered to your Lordships though we presume you may have the Original That His Majesties Army and good Subjects there were in danger to be devoured for want of needful Supplies forth of England and that His Majesties Forces were of Necessity sent abroad to try what might be done for sustaining them in the Country to keep them alive until Supplies should get to them but that design failing those their hopes were converted into astonishment to behold the Miseries of the Officers and Souldiers for want of all things and all those Wants made unsupportable in the want of Food and divers Commanders and Officers declaring they had little hope to be supplied by the Parliament pressed with so great importunity to be permitted to depart the Kingdom as that it would be extreme difficult to keep them there And in another part of that Letter for we shall not grieve you with mention of all their Complaints they expressed That they were expelling thence all Strangers and must instantly send away for England thousands of poor despoiled English whose very eating was then unsupportable to that place that their Confusions would not admit the writing of many more Letters if any for they had written divers others expressing their great Necessities And to the end His Majesty and the English Nation might not irrecoverably and unavoidably suffer they did desire that then though it were almost at the point to be too late supplies of Victuals and Ammunition in present might be hastned thither to keep life until the rest might follow there being no Victual in the store nor a hundred Barrells of Powder a small proportion to defend
Esq Edmond Wilde Esquire James Chaloner Esquire Josias Barners Esquire Dennis Bond Esq Humphry Edwards Esquire Gregory Clement Esquire John Fry Esquire Thomas Wogan Esq Sir Gregory Norton Serjeant John Bradshaw Colonel Edmund Harvey John Dove Esq Colonel John Venne John Foulk Alderman Thomas Scot Esquire Thomas Andrews Alderman William Cawley Esquire Abraham Burrell Esquire Colonel Anthony Stapely Roger Gratwicke Esquire John Downes Esquire Colonel Thomas Horton Colonel Thomas Hammond Colonel George Fenwick Serjeant Robert Nichols Robert Reynolds Esquire John Liste Esquire Nicholas Love Esquire Vincent Potter Sir Gilbert Pickering John Weaver Esquire John Lenthal Esquire Sir Edward Baynton John Corbet Esquire Thomas Blunt Esquire Thomas Boone Esquire Augustine Garland Esquire Augustine Skinner Esquire John Dixwel Esquire Colonel George Fleetwood Simon Maine Esquire Colonel James Temple Colonel Peter Temple Daniel Blagrave Esquire Sir Peter Temple Colonel Thomas Waite John Brown Esquire John Lowry Esquire shall be and are hereby appointed Commissioners and Judges for the hearing Trying and Judging of the said Charles Stuart And the said Commissioners or any twenty or more of them shall be and are hereby Authorized and constituted an High Court of Justice to meet at such convenient times and places as by the said Commissioners or the major part or twenty or more of them under their hands and seals shall be appointed and notified by publick Proclamation in the great Hall or Palace-yard of Westminster and to adjourn from time to time and from place to place as the said High Court or the major part thereof meeting shall hold fit and to take order for the charging of him the said Charles Stuart with the Crimes above mentioned and for the receiving His Personal Answer thereunto and for examination of Witnesses upon Oath if need be concerning the same and thereupon or in default of such Answer to proceed to final Sentence according to Justice and the merit of the Cause to be executed speedily and impartially And the said Court is hereby Authorized and required to chuse and appoint all such Officers Attendanrs and other circumstances as they or the major part of them shall in any sort judge necessary or useful for the orderly and good managing of the premisses and Thomas Lord Fairfax the General with all Officers of Justice and other well-affected persons are hereby Authorized and required to be aiding and assisting unto the said Commissioners in the due execution of the Trust hereby committed unto them Provided that this Ordinance and the Authority hereby granted do continue for the space of one Month from the Date of the making hereof and no longer After the reading of this the several Names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present rising up and answering to his call The King having again placed Himself in the Chair with His face towards the Commissioners Silence was again ordered and Bradshaw with Impudence befitting his person and his place stood up and said CHARLES STUART King of England The Commons of England assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the principal Author of it have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice to God the Kingdom and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves they have resolved to bring you to Trial and Judgment and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which you are brought Then their Solicitor John Cook standing within a Bar on the right hand began My Lord in behalf of the Commons of England and of all the People thereof I do accuse CHARLES STUART here present of high Treason and high Misdemeanures and I do in the name of the Commons of England desire the Charge may be read unto him As he was speaking the King held up his Staffe and laying it on his shoulders two or three times bid him Hold a little But Bradshaw ordered him to go on and the Charge being delivered to their Clerk Bradshaw told the King Sir the Court Commands the Charge to be read If you have any thing to say afterwards you may be heard Then the Clerk being ordered to read began The Charge of the Commons of England against CHARLES STUART King of England of High Treason and other High Crimes exhibited to the High Court of Justice THat the said CHARLES STUART being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise and by his Trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the Power committed to him for the good and benefit of the People and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties yet nevertheless out of a wicked Design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and Tyrannical Power to Rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People yea to take away and make void the Foundations thereof and of all redress and remedy of Mis-government which by the Fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserved on the Peoples behalf in the Right Power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National Meetings in Council he the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his Designs and for the protecting himself and his Adherents in his and their wicked practices to the same Ends hath traiterously and maliciously levied War against the present Parliament and the People therein Represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverly in the County of York and upon or about the thirtieth day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August in the same year at the County of the Town of Nottingham when and where he set up his Standard of War and upon or about the twenty third day of October in the same year at Edge-Hill and Kineton field in the County of Warwick and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the same year at Brainford in the County of Middlesex and upon or about the thirtieth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham Bridge near Reading in the County of Berks and upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or near the City of Gloucester and upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbury in the County of Berks and upon or about the one and thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and four at Croperdy Bridge in the County of Oxon and upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the year last mentioned at Bodmin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall and
hither I do stand more for the Liberty of My People than any here that come to be My pretended Judges and therefore let Me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I will answer it otherwise I will not answer it Bradshaw Sir how really you have managed your Trust is known your way of Answer is to interrogate the Court which beseems not you in this Condition You have been told of it twice or thrice KING Here is a Gentleman Lieutenant Colonel Cobbet ask him if he did not bring Me from the Isle of Wight by force I do not come here as submitting to the Court. I will stand as much for the Privilege of the House of Commons rightly understood as any man here whatsoever I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament and the King too should have been Is this the bringing of the King to His Parliament Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty in the Publick Faith of the World Let Me see a Legal Authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom and I will answer Bradshaw Sir you have propounded a Question and have been answered Seeing you will not answer the Court will consider how to proceed In the mean time those that brought you hither are to take charge of you back again The Court desires to know whether this be all the Answer you will give or no. KING Sir I desire that you would give Me and all the World satisfaction in this Let Me tell you It is not a slight thing you are about I am sworn to keep the Peace by that Duty I owe to God and My Countrey and I will do it to the last breath of My body And therefore you shall do well to satisfie first God and then the Country by what Authority you do it If you do it by an usurped Authority you cannot answer it There is a God in Heaven that will call you and all that give you Power to account Satisfie Me in that and I will answer otherwise I betray My Trust and the Liberties of the People and therefore think of that and then I shall be willing For I do avow That it is as great a Sin to withstand Lawful Authority as it is to submit to a Tyrannical or any otherways unlawful Authority And therefore satisfie God and Me and all the World in that and you shall receive My Answer I am not afraid of the Bill Bradshaw The Court expects you should give them a final Answer Their purpose is to adjourn till Monday next If you do not satisfie your self though we do tell you our Authority we are satisfied with our Authority and it is upon God's Authority and the Kingdoms and that Peace you speak of will be kept in the doing of Justice and that 's our present Work KING For Answer let Me tell you you have shewn no Lawful Authority to satisfie any reasonable man Bradshaw That 's in your apprehension we are satisfied that are your Judges KING 'T is not My apprehension nor yours neither that ought to decide it Bradshaw The Court hath heard you and you are to be disposed of as they have commanded So commanding the Guard to take Him away His Majesty only replied Well Sir And at His going down pointing with His Staff toward the Ax He said I do not fear that As He went down the stairs the People in the Hall cried out God save the King notwithstanding some were there set by the Faction to lead the clamour for Justice O yes being called they adjourn Westminster-Hall Monday Jan. 22. Afternoon SVnday being spent in Fasting and Preaching according to their manner of making Religion a pretence and prologue to their Villanies on Monday afternoon they came again into the Hall and after Silence commanded called over their Court where Seventy persons being present answered to their Names His Majesty being brought in the People gave a shout Command given to the Captain of their Guard to fetch and take into his custody those who make any Disturbance Then their Solicitor Cook began May it please your Lordship my Lord President I did at the last Court in the behalf of the Commons of England exhibite and give into this Court a Charge of High Treason and other high Crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar whereof I do accuse him in the name of the People of England and the Charge was read unto him and his Answer required My Lord he was not then pleased to give an Answer but in stead of answering did there dispute the Authority of this High Court My humble motion to this High Court in behalf of the Kingdom of England is That the Prisoner may be directed to make a Positive Answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shall refuse to do that the matter of Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court may proceed according to Justice Bradshaw Sir you may remember at the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither and you heard a Charge read against you containing a Charge of High Treason and other high Crimes against this Realm of England you heard likewise that it was prayed in the behalf of the People that you should give an Answer to that Charge that thereupon such proceedings might be had as should be agreeable to Justice you were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court and knew not by what Authority you were brought hither you did divers time propound your Questions and were as often answer'd That it was by the Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament that did think fit to call you to account for those high and capital Misdemeanours wherewith you were then charged Since that the Court hath taken into consideration what you then said they are fully satisfied with their own Authority and they hold it fit you should stand satisfied with it too and they do require it that you do give a positive and particular Answer to this Charge that is exhibited against you They do expect you should either confess or deny it If you deny it is offered in the behalf of the Kingdom to be made good against you Their Authority they do avow to the whole World that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied in and you are to rest satisfied with it and therefore you are to lose no more time but to give a positive Answer thereunto KING When I was here last 't is very true I made that Question and if it were only My own particular Case I would have satisfied My self with the Protestation I made the last time I was here against the Legality of this Court and that a King cannot be tried by any superior Jurisdiction on Earth But it is not My Case alone it is the Freedom and the Liberty of the People of England and do you pretend what
Court Your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive Answer either by denying or confession of it But my Lord he was then pleased for to demur to the Jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then over-rule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of Justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy Judgment against him My Lord I might press your Lordship upon the whole that according to the known rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable Plea guilty or not guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryal that as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the Prisoner at the Bar has done But besides my Lord I shall humbly press your Lordship upon the whole fact The House of Commons the Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom they have declared That it is notorious that the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clear as Crystal and as the Sun that shines at noon day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the People of England's behalf several Witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confess it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the Cry whereof is very great for Justice and Judgment and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgment be pronounced against the Prisoner at the Bar. Bradshaw went on in the same strain Sir you have heard what is moved by the Counsel on the behalf of the Kingdom against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what dilatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands You were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolution upon them You were told over and over again that the Court did affirm their own Jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the supreme and highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of Obedience nor did you acknowledge any authority in them nor the High Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court that they are very sensible of these delays of yours and that they ought not being thus authorized by the supreme Court of England to be thus trifled withal and that they might in Justice if they pleased and according to the rules of Justice take advantage of these delays and proceed to pronounce Judgment against you yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you that you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Justice knows no respect of Persons you are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The King after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not Bradshaw Sir you have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a nature against you your work was that you ought to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court and to answer to your Charge Sir if you answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your Contempt yet if you be able to answer to your Charge when you have once answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their Commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the matter that is charged upon you KING For the Charge I value it not a rush It is the Liberty of the People of England that I stand for For Me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an Example to all the People of England for to uphold Justice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it You spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon Me by God to the maintenance of the Liberties of My People the same Obligation you spake of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to Him and to My People to defend as much as in Me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore until that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by your favour I can put in no particular Charge If you will give Me time I will shew you My Reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted He said By your favour you ought not to interrupt Me. How I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was in a Treaty upon the Publick Faith of the Kingdom that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdom and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Bradshaw Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. KING By your favour Sir Bradshaw Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into those discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court The Court craves it not of you but once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk Do your Duty KING Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of Confession or Denial of the Charge KING Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the People of England of the clearness of My Proceeding not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to Me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their
it but if I cannot get this Liberty I do protest That these fair shews of Liberty and Peace are pure shews and that you will not hear your King Bradshaw Sir you have now spoken KING Yes Sir Bradshaw And this that you have said is a further declining of the Jurisdiction of this Court which was the thing wherein you were limited before KING Pray excuse Me Sir for My interruption because you mistake Me. It is not a declining of it you do judge Me before you hear Me speak I say it will not I do not decline it though I cannot acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court yet Sir in this give Me leave to say I would do it though I did not acknowledge it in this I do protest it is not the declining of it since I say if that I do say any thing but that that is for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject then the shame is Mine Now I desire that you will take this into your Consideration if you will I will withdraw Bradshaw Sir this is not altogether new that you have moved unto us not altogether new to us though the first time in person you have offered it to the Court. Sir you say you do not decline the Jurisdiction of the Court. KING Not in this that I have said Bradshaw I understand you well Sir but nevertheless that which you have offered seems to be contrary to that saying of yours for the Court are ready to give a Sentence It is not as you say That they will not hear their King for they have been ready to hear you they have patiently waited your pleasure for three Courts together to hear what you would say to the Peoples Charge against you to which you have not vouchsafed to give any Answer at all Sir this tends to a further Delay Truly Sir such Delays as these neither may the Kingdom nor Justice well bear You have had three several days to have offered in this kind what you would have pleased This Court is founded upon that Authority of the Commons of England in whom rests the Supreme Jurisdiction That which you now tender is to have another Jurisdiction and a co-ordinate Jurisdiction I know very well you express your self Sir That notwithstanding that you would offer to the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber yet nevertheless you would proceed on here I did hear you say so But Sir that you would offer there whatever it is must needs be in delay of the Justice here so as if this Court be resolved and prepared for the Sentence this that you offer they are not bound to grant But Sir according to that you seem to desire and because you shall know the further pleasure of the Court upon that which you have moved the Court will withdraw for a time This he did to prevent the disturbance of their Scene by one of their own Members Colonel John Downes who could not stifle the reluctance of his Conscience when he saw his Majesty press so earnestly for a short hearing but declaring himself unsatisfied forced them to yield to the King's Request KING Shall I withdraw Bradshaw Sir You shall know the pleasure of the Court presently The Court withdraws for half an hour into the Court of Wards Serjeant at Arms. The Court gives command that the Prisoner be withdrawn and they give order for his return again Then withdrawing into the Chamber of the Court of Wards their business was not to consider of his Majesties desire but to Chide Downes and with reproaches and threats to harden him to go through the remainder of their Villany with them Which done they return and being sate Bradshaw commanded Serjeant at Armes send for your Prisoner Who being come Bradshaw proceeded Sir you were pleased to make a motion here to the Court to offer a desire of yours touching the propounding of somewhat to the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber for the Peace of the Kingdom Sir you did in effect receive an Answer before the Court adjourned truly Sir their withdrawing and adjournment was pro forma tantùm for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing They have considered of what you have moved and have considered of their own Authority which is founded as hath been often said upon the supreme Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament the Court acts accordingly to their Commission Sir the return I have to you from the Court is this That they have been too much delayed by you already and this that you now offer hath occasioned some little further Delay and they are Judges appointed by the highest Authority and Judges are no more to delay than they are to deny Justice they are good words in the Great old Charter of England Nulli negabimus nulli vendemus nulli deferemus Justitiam there must be no delay But the truth is Sir and so every man here observes it that you have much delayed them in your Contempt and Default for which they might long since have proceeded to Judgment against you and notwithstanding what you have offered they are resolved to proceed to Sentence and to Judgment and that is their unanimous Resolution KING Sir I know it is in vain for Me to dispute I am no Sceptick for to deny the Power that you have I know that you have Power enough Sir I must confess I think it would have been for the Kingdoms Peace if you would have taken the pains for to have shewn the Lawfulness of your Power For this Delay that I have desired I confess it is a Delay but it is a Delay very important for the Peace of the Kingdom for it is not My Person that I look at alone it is the Kingdoms Welfare and the Kingdoms Peace It is an old Sentence That we should think on long before we resolve of great matters suddenly Therefore Sir I do say again that I do put at your doors all the inconveniency of a hasty Sentence I confess I have been here now I think this Week this day eight dayes was the day I came here first but a little Delay of a day or two further may give Peace whereas a hasty Judgment may bring on that Trouble and perpetual Inconveniency to the Kingdom that the Child that is unborn may repent it And therefore again out of the Duty I owe to God and to My Country I do desire that I may be heard by the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber or any other Chamber that you will appoint Me. Bradshaw You have been already answered to what you even now moved being the same you moved before since the Resolution and the Judgment of the Court in it And the Court now requires to know whether you have any more to say for your self than you have said before they proceed to Sentence KING I say this Sir That if you hear Me if you will give
Colonel Thomas Waite Counsellors Assistant to draw up the Charge Doctor Isaac Dorislaw Aske William Steele who excused himself by sickness John Cooke Solicitor Dendy Serjeant Mace-bearer Broughton and Phelps Clerkâ— His Majesty being taken away by the Guard as He passed down the Stairs the insolent Souldiers scoffed at Him casting the smoak of their Tobacco a thing very distastful to Him in His Face and throwing their Pipes in his way And one more insolent than the rest spitting in His Face His Majesty according to His wonted Heroick Patience took no more notice of so strange and barbarous an indignity than to wipe it off with His Handkerchief As He passed along hearing the rabble of Souldiers crying out Justice Justice He said Poor souls for a piece of Money they would do so for their commanders Being brought first to Sir Cotton's and thence to White Hall the Souldiers continued their brutish carriage toward Him abusing all that seemed to shew any respect or even pity to Him not suffering Him to rest in his Chamber but thrusting in and smoaking their Tobacco and disturbing His Privaty But through all these Trials unusual to Princes He passed with such a calm and even temper that He let fall nothing unbeseeming His former Majesty and Magnanimity In the Evening a Member of the Army acquainted the Committee with His Majestie 's desire That seeing they had passed a Sentence of Death upon Him and His time might be nigh He might see His Children and Doctor Juxon Bishop of London might be admitted to assist Him in His private Devotions and receiving the Sacrament Both which at length were granted And the next day being Sunday He was attended by the Guard to Saint James ' s where the Bishop preached before Him upon these words In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel LVIII His MAJESTIE's Speech to the Lady ELIZABETH and HENRY Duke of GLOUCESTER Jan. 29. MDCXL VIII IX Of His MAJESTIE's discourse to His Children there being several Relations it is thought fit to represent the several Copies I. A true Relation of the King's Speech to the Lady ELIZABETH and the Duke of GLOUCESTER the day before His Death HIS Children being come to meet Him He first gave His Blessing to the Lady Elizabeth and bade Her Remember to â—ell Her Brother James whenever She should see Him that it was his Fathers last â—â—sire that he should no more look upon Charles as his Eldest Brother only but be obedient unto Him as his Sovereign And that they should love one another and forgive their Fathers Enemies Then said the King to Her Sweet Heart you will forget this No said She I shall never forget it whilst I live and pouring forth abundance of tears promised Him to write down the particulars Then the King taking the Duke of Gloucester upon His Knee said Sweet Heart now they will cut off thy Fathers Head upon which words the Child looked very stedfastly on Him Mark Child what I say They will cut off My Head and perhaps make thee a King But mark what I say You must not be a King so long as your Brothers CHARLES and JAMES do live for they will cut off your Brothers Heads when they can catch them and cut off thy Head too at last and therefore I charge you do not be made a King by them At which the Child sighing said I will be torn in pieces first Which falling so unexpectedly from one so young it made the King rejoyce exceedingly II. Another Relation from the Lady ELIZABETHS own Hand WHat the King said to me the 29. of Jan. 1648. being the last time I had the Happiness to see Him He told me He was glad I was come and although He had not time to say much yet somewhat He had to say to Me which He had not to another or leave in writing because He feared their Cruelty was such as that they would not have permitted Him to write to me He wished me not to grieve and torment my self for Him for that would be a glorious Death that He should die it being for the Laws and Liberties of this Land and for maintaining the true Protestant Religion He bid me read Bishop Andrewes Sermons Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity and Bishop Laud's Book against Fisher which would ground me against Popery He told me He had forgiven all his Enemies and hoped God would forgive them also and commanded us and all the rest of my Brothers and Sisters to forgive them He bid me tell my Mother that His thoughts had never strayed from Her and that His Love should be the same to the last Withal He commanded me and my Brother to be obedient to Her and bid me send His Blessing to the rest of my Brothers and Sisters with commendation to all His Friends So after He had given me his Blessing I took my leave Further He commanded us all to forgive those People but never to trust them for they had been most false to Him and to those that gave them Power and He feared also to their own Souls And desired me not to grieve for Him for He should die a Martyr and that He doubted not but the Lord would settle His Throne upon His Son and that we should be all happier than we could have expected to have been if he had lived With many other things which at present I cannot remember ELIZABETH III. Another Relation from the Lady ELIZABETH THE King said to the Duke of Glocester that He would say nothing to him but what was for the good of his Soul He told him that He heard the Army intended to make him King but it was a thing not for him to take upon him if he regarded the welfare of his Soul for he had two Brothers before him and therefore commanded him upon his Blessing never to accept of it unless it redounded lawfully upon him and commanded him to fear the Lord and he would provide for him LIX His MAJESTIE's Speech upon the Scaffold before White-Hall with the Manner of His Martyrdom Jan. 30. MDCXLVIII IX IN pursuance of the bloody Sentence passed upon His Sacred Majesty the same Sixty four persons met the same day in the Painted Chamber and appointed Waller Harrison Ireton Deane and Okey a Committee to consider of the time and place for the Execution Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 29. 1648. Forty eight of the Commissioners met and Upon Report made from the Committee for considering of the Time and Place of the Executing of the Judgment against the King That the said Committee have Resolved That the open Street before White-Hall is a fit place and that the said Committee conceive it fit That the King be there executed to morrow the King having already notice thereof The Court approved thereof and ordered a Warrant to be drawn for that purpose which Warrant was accordingly drawn and agreed unto and ordered to be ingrossed which was
Quarterings nor Marchings and when it shall be found fit to send Troops out of either Army that the Persons to be sent out of the Scotish Army shall be commanded out by their own General the Lieutenant of Ireland prescribing the number which shall not exceed the fourth part of the whole Foot of the Scotish Army nor of the Horse appointed to joyn therewith whereunto they shall return when the Service is done And that no Officer of the Scotish Army shall be commanded by one of his own Quality and if the Commanders of the Troops so sent out of either Army be one of Quality that they command the Party by turns And it is nevertheless provided that the whole Scotish Army may be called out of the Province of Vlster and the Horses appointed to joyn with them by His Majesties Lieutenant of Ireland or other chief Governour or Governours of that Kingdom for the time being if he or they shall think fit before the Rebellion be totally suppressed therein Eleventhly it is agreed That the Scotish Army shall be entertained by the English for three Months from the twentieth of June last and so along after until they be discharged and that they shall have a Months Pay advanced when they are first mustered in Ireland and thereafter shall be duely paid from Month to Month and that there shall be one Muster-master appointed by the English Muster-master General to make strict and frequent Musters of the Scotish Army and that what Companies of Men shall be sent out of Scotland within the compass of the Ten thousand Men shall be paid upon their Musters in Ireland although they make not up compleat Regiments Twelfthly it is agreed That the Scotish Army shall receive their discharge from the King and Parliament of England or from such Persons as shall be appointed and authorized by His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament for that purpose and that there shall be a Months warning before-hand of their disbanding which said discharge and Months warning shall be made known by His Majesty and them to the Council of Scotland or the Lord Chancellor a Month before the discharging thereof and that the Common Souldiers of the Scotish at their dismission shall be allowed fourteen days Pay for carrying of them home Thirteenthly it is provided and agreed That at any time after the Three Months now agreed upon for the entertainment of the Scotish Army shall be expired and that the Two Houses of Parliament or such persons as shall be authorized by them shall give notice to the Council of Scotland or to the Lord Chancellor there that after one Month from such notice given the said Two Houses of Parliament will not pay the said Scotish Army now in Ireland any longer then the said Two Houses of Parliament shall not be obliged to pay the said Army any longer then during the said Month any thing in this Treaty contained to the contrary notwithstanding The Ordinances of the 9. of March and 11. of April Die Sabbati 9. Martii 1643-44 Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled THat he who doth or shall command in chief over the said Army by joynt Advice of both Kingdoms shall also command the rest of the British Forces in Ireland and for the further managing of that War and prosecuting the Ends expressed in the Covenant that the same be done by joynt Advice with the Committees of both Kingdoms Die Jovis 11. April 1644. Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled THat the Earl of Leven Lord General of the Scots Forces in Ireland being now by the Votes of both Houses agreed to be Commander in chief over all the Forces as well British as Scots according to the Fourth Article of the result of the Committees of both Kingdoms passed both Houses be desired with all convenient speed by the Advice of the said Committees to appoint and nominate a Commander in chief under his Excellency over the said Forces to reside with them upon the place Resolved c. THat Committees be nominated and appointed by the joynt Advice of both Kingdoms of such Numbers and Qualities as shall be by them agreed on to be sent with all convenient speed to reside with the said Forces and enabled with all ample Instructions by the joynt Advice of both Kingdoms for the Regulating of the said Forces and the better carrying on of that War The Letter of the Lords Justices and Council of Ireland to the Speaker of the House of Commons in England 4. April 1643. a Duplicate whereof the Original being sent to VVestminster was by them sent to Master Secretary Nicholas for His Majesty SIR OUR very good Lord the Lord Marquess of Ormond having in his March in his last Expedition consulted several times with the Commanders and Officers of the Army in a Council of War and so finding that subsistence could not be had abroad for the Men and Horses he had with him or for any considerable part of them it was resolved by them that his Lordship with those Forces should return hither which he did on the six and twentieth of March. In his return from Rosse which in the case our Forces stand he found so difficult to be taken in as although our Ordinance made a breach in their Walls it was found necessary to desert the Siege he was encountred by an Army of the Rebels consisting of about six thousand Foot and six hundred and fifty Horse well armed and horsed yet it pleased God so to disappoint their counsels and strength as with those small Forces which the Lord Marquess had with him being of fighting men about two thousand five hundred Foot and five hundred Horse not well armed and for the most part weakly horsed and those as well Men as Horses much weakned by lying in the Fields several Nights in much Cold and Rain and by want of Mans-meat and Horse-meat the Lord Marquess obtained a happy and glorious deliverance and Victory against those Rebels wherein were slain about three hundred of them and many of their Commanders and others of Quality and divers taken Prisoners and amongst those Prisoners Colonel Cullen a Native of this City who being a Colonel in France departed from thence and came hither to assist the Rebels and was Lieutenant-General of their Army in the Province of Leimster and the Rebels Army were totally routed and defeated and their Baggage and Munition seized on by His Majesties Forces who lodged that Night where they had gained the Victory and on our side about twenty slain in the fight and divers wounded We have great cause to praise God for magnifying his Goodness and Mercy to His Majesty and this His Kingdom so manifestly and indeed wonderfully in that Victory However the Joy due from us upon so happy an occasion is we confess mingled with very great Distraction here in the apprehension of our Unhappiness to be such as although the